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Owls -3 vs. Bobcats

The absence of a World Series game tonight has opened the door for a rare Tuesday night college football showdown tonight in baseball-mad Philadelphia. Two struggling teams from the Mid-American Conference meet at Lincoln Financial Field tonight as the Ohio Bobcats travel east to take own their conference rival Temple Owls.

Ohio (2-5, 1-2) looks to continue their season turnaround as they attempt to win their third game in four tries. The Bobcats started the season a disappointing 0-4, even though they gave state rivals Ohio State a run for their money in the second week of the season as they led the Buckeyes at half time and added an early second half touchdown before ultimately surrendering the lead and eventually the game 26-14. Wins over Kent State and VMI sandwiched between a 41-20 thumping in Kalamazoo against Western Michigan has given Ohio some hope that their season may now be on the right track, especially against a Temple team whom the Bobcats’ blasted 23-7 in the teams’ first meeting last season in Athens, Ohio.

In their second season of playing football in the MAC, Temple (2-5, 1-3) has struggled against their new conference rivals as well as in their non-conference schedule.  The Owls started the season with a convincing 35-7 victory over Army, but followed that win with five losses in six games. Their only win during that time came on the road against Miami of Ohio, 28-10 on October 4.

If Temple hopes to win this contest, they must stop Ohio’s offense because their own offense has been lackluster throughout 2008. The Owls have the 113th best scoring offense, rank 115th in the nation in total yards, 101st in passing yards and 108th in rushing yards.

Meanwhile the Bobcats’ offense ranks in the middle of the pack, however they have been putting up big numbers on offense, but it has not helped them win more than 2 games.

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Memphis -3 1/2 vs. UAB

On Thursday night the Memphis Tigers will try and get to that elusive .500 mark against Alabama-Birmingham.

The lethal combination of Memphis running back Curtis Steele and quarterback Arkelon Hall should play a big part in this game. Steele is coming off one of his best games rushing for 203 yards last weekend against Arkansas State and Hall continues to be consistent at quarterback as he ranks 12th in passing yards in the country right now.

Memphis comes into this match up with a good chance of coming out on top as UAB has had trouble on defense stopping quarterbacks production through the air. So bad in fact, that the Blazers are third worst team in the country in giving up passing yardage. If Arkelon Hall keeps playing the way he has, expect a big day from him.

Not only can UAB not stop anyone from scoring, but their production on the offensive side of the football is just as bad. In only two games against Division I opponents the Blazers quarterback Joe Webb has thrown five interceptions. The kid may be good with his feet racking up 423 rushing yards, but if he can’t get it done in the air the Blazers will always be in trouble.

With Memphis clear advantage on both sides of the ball, the Tigers should get a win in Alabama on Thursday night and get back to being a .500 football team.

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